9 months since last Clinton news conference

It used to be that a daily scrum with reporters was an almost daily staple for any candidate running for President, but as of today, Hillary Clinton has now gone nine months without doing a news conference of any type. Yes, she has done interviews with the press, but her last encounter with multiple reporters was December 5 of last year – after a campaign stop in Iowa.

While the scoreboard shows a big lead for Donald Trump on news conferences – he has repeatedly attacked Clinton for not making herself available – Trump has himself become much less accessible to reporters of late.

The Wall Street broke down the numbers last week this way on Trump news conferences:

January – 2
February – 3
March – 5
April – 2
May – 2
June – 1
July – 1
August – 1

But that’s still a much better record than that of Clinton.

Yes, there is no law that says a candidate for President must allow reporters to ask questions each day, week or month of a campaign for President.

But as a reporter, I can certainly close my eyes and think back to various trips on the campaign trail where reporters would get a quick crack at the candidate.

It’s not hard to go back into the files of C-SPAN to find a few examples of candidates meeting reporters on the trail: